Is the US economy in a recession?

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The U.S. economy has dipped for two quarters in a row, meaning the country is in a recession under the traditional definition. However, there hasn’t been a big market reaction to the GDP news, and U.S. President Joe Biden, economists and several lawmakers have been avoiding the term “recession.”

As Brett Chang reports, there’s a big debate right now about whether the U.S. is in a recession, showing the complexity of the situation with no clear consensus.

Though the two-consecutive quarters of downturn in the American economy fit the traditional definition of a recession, what complicates the situation is that there are also other factors when defining an economic period of recession — such as job growth and household spending, which remains steady at the moment.

In the U.S., recessions are officially decided by the National Bureau of Economic Research, though declarations are historically slow. As Anne Gaviola asks, is this the best system - and who does this benefit?

For Canada, if the U.S. is seeing a slowdown in the economy, will its northern neighbour be far behind?

Brett Chang from The Peak Podcast joins Anne Gaviola for more on these topics and much more.